Part of any grand bargain on the budget shortfall might include some form of further reform of the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS).
The Senate Workforce Committee took an early lead on that issue by issuing criteria for any possible reform, hearing a detailed explanation from the PERS Director regarding the current PERS system and Unfunded Actuarial Liability (ULA), and holding a series of hearings various bills.
Because of deadlines, the legislative vehicles for possible PERS reform were sent to the Joint Ways & Means Committee. However, before sending those bills to Ways & Means, the Workforce Committee stripped out the emergency clauses in an effort to reassure current public employees that any reforms that might possibly impact their accrued benefits would not occur, if at all, without plenty of time to retire in advance of any potential impacts.
In addition, PERS has issued a one-pager describing what has been done thus far, which should also offer some reassurance to current public employees that they do not need to jump ship before the dust has settled.
Contributed by: Rob Bovett | AOC Legal Counsel